Gear I Used for this Article

When I write up an amp settings post I usually do a combination of researching what other people have come up what I discover with my own tinkering.

From what I saw other people suggest, it seemed like the main inconsistency was centered around how high to keep the treble, while most everything else was fairly reliable.

My Jimmy Page Amp Settings

On my Line 6, I found that the higher treble configurations worked a bit better.

That being said, you should try a few different things with this setting, depending on what kind of amp you have and what your rig looks like.

Smaller tube amps might need to have bass and treble dialed back with a little more of a mid scoop.

Otherwise, look for a moderate amount of gain, high bass and just a touch of reverb.

In the example I might have the bass a little higher than what Page would have on his Marshall amps.

On my amp, the tone was just way too shrill with the treble pushed so high.

I countered that by bring the bass up as well.

On a tube amp you might be able to leave the bass low, since tubes give off a smoother and more warm response.

Start with these numbers and then make you own adjustments:

Gain: 5 / Bass: 8 / Mid: 6 / Treble: 8 / Reverb: 4 / Presence: 8

Effects

Jimmy Page used effects sparingly, getting most of his sounds from the back end of amplifiers and process.

In some cases he would use the scripted MXR Phase 90 and was often photographed on stage with a Vox wah.

However, the meat of his sound came from the Marshall and Les Paul combination, which means the effects he used are more so for added flavor and not foundational to his tone.

Conclude

If you have a Marshall amp it definitely gives you an edge in terms of imitating his sound.

If you don’t have any of that stuff (like me) you can still carve out a classic Page tone if you work carefully with your gear.

Use the settings as a base camp and branch out from there until you find something that sounds similar to Page’s guitar.

After that, it’s all up to you and your technique.

If you have questions about the settings or gear feel free to get in touch via Twitter and Facebook.

Could you use more gear help?

Producing “great tone” is a worthy pursuit, but not always an obvious one.

We all own a unique collection of gear that seems to sound different all the time. That’s normal, but still something we need to learn to deal with.

We need to learn our gear.

If you want to access some resources that will help dealing with a specific tonal pursuit, piece of gear or other questions related to your rig, I’d recommend giving Guitar Tricks 14-day free trial a test run – there’s no obligations and you’ve got nothing to lose – except two free weeks of one of the most comprehensive and thorough guitar education websites in existence.